Eavesdrop On Experts

Welcome to a special episode of Eavesdrop on Experts where we encourage experts to obsess, confess and profess. On the 11th March 2020, producers Silvi Vann-Wall and Arch Cuthbertson attended the International Womens Day event called “My Brilliant Career”. It was held by the MDHS at the University of Melbourne. It features 6 female leaders in the field of child health, who speak about their career journeys, lessons learnt and advice to younger people. We can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women's achievements. My Brilliant Career is one part of our journey to supporting female voices, career pathways and experiences in science and health. Collectively, we can make change happen – we can all choose to be #EachforEqual. #UniMelbMDHS #GenerationEquality We have captured the event here - so without further ado, we bring you “My Brilliant Career”. Moderator: Professor Megan Munsie. Panellists: Dr Katie Allen MP, Associate Professor

Dr Ashleigh Hood’s career in geology started as a child. “When I was just a kid, my grandpa used to take me on walks. I’d find rocks and put them in people’s letterboxes, so that was the start of my love affair with geology,” says Dr Hood. She now searches the globe for ancient reefs, looking for ancient life forms and information about animal evolution. No longer in the oceans, these 500 million-year-old reefs are preserved high in mountains across Canada, Namibia and Australia. “Earth’s history spans back about 4.5 billion years, so these tiny little slivers of rock record one snapshot of time, Dr Hood says. “Our work addresses one of the most fundamental questions in science and that’s how did we get here? This is, of course, a very big question.” “For example, these reefs formed during a time called Snowball Earth, which is when the Earth froze over almost completely, twice. This is our most severe climate change in Earth’s history and so right in the middle of this big ice age we see these huge tropical

“I’ve always followed the issues that the Australian community are concerned about,” says social researcher Dr Rebecca Huntley. “There are high levels of concern in the community about climate change, regardless of how you measure them, but people have very low levels of expectation that our leaders not only can, but will, do anything about it,” she says. Dr Huntley says studies have revealed a common misconception in which people believe there are greater numbers of climate change deniers and coal supporters in the community than there actually are. “That’s because those voices are amplified in the media, in certain parts of corporate Australia and in some parts of the government, so that’s a really important misconception,” she says. “This is why things like reform of the political donation system, certainly at the Federal level, is an important part of restoring people’s faith that a transition away from old energy sources to these new renewable energy sources, is something that will actually happen.”

In 2009, Professor Peter Singer wrote his book The Life You Can Save in order to highlight that our response to world poverty was not only insufficient, but ethically indefensible. In the tenth anniversary edition released in late 2019, Professor Singer examines the progress we have made since the book’s release and how the first edition transformed the lives of both readers and the people they helped. “I’ve argued that we can expand our circle of moral concern and that that’s an important thing to do, beyond the social group that we’re part of,” says Professor Singer, who holds positions as the Ira W DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. “I think we need to include all human beings, not just people who are alive now, but into the future, which has of course become a much more critical issue with climate change, with our awareness of what we’re doing to the planet.” He notes that psychology is star

Twenty years ago, Professor Elizabeth Vincan set out to understand how cancer cells ‘talk’ to each other and the cells around them. Her research group was among a number to realise that some cancer cells always ‘switched on’ specific genes that function in an ancient form of cell-to-cell communication. And the idea was that if you could find out what these genes did, and block them, it could provide a new way to treat cancer. “At that time I was a young post doc mum and working where I was working was just too difficult because I had to go over the West Gate Bridge,” she says. So when a position came up at Western Hospital that suited her, she fell into cancer research. “The good thing about that is that I don’t actually have any formal cancer training, so when I address a question I come at it from a completely different tack. So that has been instrumental in the path that my career has taken,” Professor Vincan says. “What I realised way back in the late 1990s is that growing – a solid tumour, for examp

Lupus isn’t well known, but the currently incurable autoimmune disease often marked by a ‘butterfly’ rash on the face, is highly prevalent, affecting five million people globally. Treatments are few and far between and few researchers are focused on it. But award winning medical researcher Professor Fabienne Mackay has concentrated much of her career on tackling lupus, and in 2011 her genetic research work led to the approval of the first new treatment for the disease in more than 50 years. And while that is good news for some patients, the treatment isn’t effective for all patients, and she says more research work and breakthroughs are needed. “I would love the public to realise that lupus is actually very prevalent; that the therapies we have at the moment, even though I worked towards one, are not serving everybody. It helps some patients but not all of them,” says Professor Mackay who in October 2019 received a Distinguished Innovator Award from the US-based Lupus Research Alliance. The good news is th

The teenage brain is very interesting. According to Dr Katherine Canobi, author and cognitive developmental psychologist at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, it’s a time when young people are starting to work out who they are, as well as looking to form meaningful and authentic relationships. “During this stage, their brains are still developing in various ways, for example executive function like decision making isn’t fully developed yet and neither is impulse control.” Combining novel writing and research, Dr Canobi is interested in how teenagers respond to the technology in their lives. Her novel Mindcull, explores how technology can be used to disguise and escape from reality. “It’s probably fair to say that there are links between extensive screen use and symptoms of depression and anxiety, but not every study has found that. Some studies have found positive results for social media for a sense of connection with others,” she says. Dr Canobi says we need to look at how we use technolo

Now a professor of biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, in 1969 Sir Thomas Blundell was one of the first people to see what the hormone insulin looked like. As part of the team led by Nobel Prize winner Dorothy Hodgkin, it was a medical breakthrough for diabetes patients everywhere. “I was always interested in doing a range of different things,” Professor Blundell says. “I came from a family where my grandfather was a very gifted artist and musician. And although my parents left school when they were 14 and 15, they always encouraged me to think more broadly.” “So I may be a little bit unusual because I’ve ended up doing things in politics, music and science, and that of course led me to advise prime ministers and to run organisations and found companies.” Professor Blundell’s research has focussed on understanding the structure and function of molecules for targets to improve drug design. “By using X-rays with very short wavelength, I can see these very tiny molecules. Add in other methods like

The hepatitis B virus causes liver inflammation that, despite treatment, still leaves people at greater risk of developing liver disease and cancer. While it can be effectively vaccinated against, there is no cure. Researchers Professor Peter Revill and Dr Thomas Tu are on front line of global efforts to find a cure; helped by Dr Tu developing a new method to better detect the virus’ ‘master blueprint’. For Dr Tu, who was diagnosed with the disease as a teenager, finding a cure for Hep B is personal. “I wasn’t given much information, just that you will have this for the rest of your life, and that was it. You may get liver disease down the track,” recalls Dr Tu. “After that I was a bit despondent, as you can imagine, but then “I thought what is this”? And so I went online and started really looking up what hepatitis B was and I accrued all of this knowledge and realised I could do something.” In fact, Dr Tu’s research in part led him to meet his now-wife. Professor Revill says Dr Tu’s new method could b

You might not know it, but Melbourne has little earthquakes, even in the city centre and quite frequently. So says Michael Webster, engineering geologist at consulting, design and construction company, Golder Associates, and guest lecturer for the Master of Engineering at the University of Melbourne. “A lot of people know about the earthquakes down in Gippsland or the Otways, but actually in Melbourne itself, there have been earthquakes. You’d have to be a seismic instrument to actually feel these ones but they are there at all depths – some of them quite deep, some of them shallow,” he says. From the geology beneath Melbourne, Michael has created an intricate, three dimensional picture. “There are two lava flows under Melbourne, so you effectively get these beautiful layers cutting across each other, building up over about three to four million years to the present day,” he says. “So, in collaboration with the Arts Centre Melbourne and Development Victoria, we 3D printed a ground model and put on an exhibiti

A lot of Aboriginal people don’t necessarily feel comfortable accessing health services, explains Gwenda Freeman, Associate Lecturer in Aboriginal Health at the University of Melbourne. “Whereas you might have been brought up to go to the doctor when you are unwell, for Aboriginal people (going to a doctor) might be a much bigger issue,” she says. “There might be issues of racism, there might be history of difficulties, there might be hesitancy about western medicine and all sorts of cost and other anxieties that often prevent people from being able to access what we would consider basic health services.” As a lecturer in the Specialist Certificate qualification in ‘Empowering Health in Aboriginal Communities’, Gwenda says the course provides a pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to undertake the Master of Public Health degree, opening possibilities for Indigenous people to be at the table in organising health services for their own community. “There’s been a lovely coming together re

The 13th century physician and astronomer Zakariya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwinin was an influential member of the literary circles in Iraq and advisor to the Mongol Governor of the area. One of his major works is the Wonders of Creation, a kind of compilation of the knowledge of the universe, says Dr Stefano Carboni, lecturer in Islamic Art at the University of Western Australia and 2019 Macgeorge Fellow at the University of Melbourne. “Starting from the outer spheres where the throne of God is found and then coming down to the sphere of the angels, the fixed stars, the planets, the sub-lunar sphere and then everything that happens on earth. That includes the sphere of air, so all the phenomena – the atmospherical phenomena that happen in our skies.” Professor Carboni explains that the majority of books in the 13th century would be illustrated scientific manuscripts, or even works of Arabic literature that looked very much in the tradition of late Byzantine art. And when the Mongols arrived they brought the Chi

Music has this unique ability to connect with emotion, and with memory, so they’re very intricately linked, says Professor Felicity Baker, Head of Music Therapy and Director of the International Research Partnerships for the Creative Arts and Music Therapy Research Unit at the University of Melbourne. “When you hear a piece of music and then the memories become evoked as a result of that, the neural network is activated, and it also then leads to the activation of more positive moods.” Professor Baker studies how music, especially singing and songwriting, can be used to treat people with a range of conditions – from young people with traumatic brain injuries to adults with substance abuse issues and, especially, people with dementia. “We’re actually showing the family carers how to use music in really strategic ways to support the care of the person that they’re looking after. But we’re also interested in preserving the relationship between the carer and the person that they’re caring for,” Professor Baker sa

In her new book Future Histories, author and lawyer Lizzie O’Shea asks what historical social experiments like the Paris Commune can tell us about modern online democracy. “I sort of see Mark Zuckerberg’s call for regulation of his platform somewhat cynically,” she says. “I think he’s trying to do that in anticipation of it coming inevitably. So, he’s going to try and manage that process.” According to the author, this is the moment for us to organise and think about how we can install more democracy into how decisions are made over these platforms. This includes asking questions like what kind of technology should get prioritised and developed? And how do we allocate those resources rather than just leaving it to private companies to do themselves? “I guess this is a conceptual framework that I’ve sourced from indigenous ways of knowing and governing. I looked to places like Aboriginal Australia, New Zealand prior to colonisation, and also in North America, in Canada,” says Ms O’Shea. “So looking to th

Impaired memory is a symptom of schizophrenia and University of Melbourne PhD student Cassandra Wannan has identified areas of the brain that give us new clues as to what’s going on. Up to 1 in 100 people worldwide will experience schizophrenia. It can stem from a number of factors, including genetics, trauma, and substance abuse. For centuries there’s been limited understanding of how schizophrenia operates, leading to misdiagnosis or insufficient treatment. In order to better our understanding of schizophrenia, Cassandra Wannan recently authored a paper on schizophrenia and memory impairment. Confirming the role of memory loss in schizophrenia may be a major step towards fully understanding the illness. Interview recorded: July 23, 2019. Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath. Producer, editor & audio engineer: Chris Hatzis. Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall & Dr Andi Horvath. Image: Getty Images.

Physics is sometimes described in terms of two frontiers, says Professor Jamieson, a physicist at the University of Melbourne and Chief Investigator of the Victorian node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology. “One frontier is cosmological. You look out into the abyss of space, an enormous scale of space and time.” “So that’s a journey into the wide frontier as we explore the cosmos with evermore powerful telescopes and use the laws of physics as the guide to understand what we see.” He says that the other frontier is the inward bound, the frontier into the subatomic - that is, the atomic and subatomic building blocks of matter. This research is providing new insights into the way the world works and so has unlocked the potential of quantum technologies, like quantum computing, with its enormous potential. “We have the standard model for particle physics that seems to explain, very successfully, the way matter works and interacts, but there are some naggi

Associate Professor Duane Hamacher has spent 11 years immersing himself into the world of Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous science. Working closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and communities to learn about their astronomical knowledge and teachings, Associate Professor Hamacher also mentors and supports Indigenous students pursuing studies in astronomy, physics, and space science. “I was very fortunate to be able to learn directly from many Elders,” says Associate Professor Hamacher. “The sky serves as a textbook, a logbook, a mnemonic a way of remembering everything on the earth you can see in the sky so that was quite fascinating." “So reading the stars means you can observe changes in their positions and properties and know how to interpret that to be able to tell things like changing weather or animal behaviour or navigation." He says what we have now is a whole generation of Aboriginal students who are studying astrophysics, who are studying Indigenous astronomy. “They are

Following his uncle’s brain injury, Dr David Gonsalvez studied neuroscience and now researches the connections between brain cells and how they change in diseases like Multiple Sclerosis. “The cells that I study make the insulating material myelin, that covers all of the wires in the brain,” says Dr Gonsalvez. Our ‘wiring’ is formed by axons, the long stalks that grow out of the brain’s neurons and carry electrical signals to other neurons. Myelin is wrapped around axons to insulate the signals, just like wires in a house. By studying the impact of the environment on myelin and how it forms, Dr Gonsalvez and his team hope to also understand what happens when it degrades and the electrical signal is disrupted, as happens in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). “I’m starting to get really interested in whether or not those features of growth are impacted by your environment and conditions,” Dr Gonsalvez says. “Any situation that you’re put in, any interaction you’re having with the environment, and any interaction you

One of anthropologist Professor Andrew Dawson’s research papers is titled ‘Why Marx was a bad driver: Alienation to sensuality in the anthropology of automobility’. The name gives an insight into his interest in the way movement, mobility and migration informs cultures and communities around the world. “Anthropologists often see cultures and communities as outcomes of people living in places. The fact is that people have always been mobile, and increasingly are mobile, especially with globalisation. So, we have to change the way we think about our objects of study,” says Professor Dawson. By joining people as they move around in cars or on buses, he gets a unique understanding into why they’re moving in the first place; toward or away from something. “Moving is absolutely natural, it’s part of the human condition, unfettered movement”. Interview recorded: June 14, 2019. Interviewer: Steve Grimwade. Audio engineer, producer, editor: Chris Hatzis. Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath. Ban

Genomics is a rapidly evolving technology that can help identify the genetic cause of a condition in a person. It can also find a person’s predisposition to various diseases like some cancers. When science first sequenced all the genes in the entire human genome, it became possible for scientists to compare the genomic patterns of larger groups of people – looking for more clues to health and disease in the ‘big data’. Professor Clara Gaff was awarded the Most Valuable Woman in Leadership in the Biomedical Space for 2019 for her work as Executive Director of the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance. And the way genomic technology has advanced still stuns her. “The rates of diagnosis using this technology surpasses what I had expected,” she says. “It’s something I could never have imagined.” Episode recorded: May 16, 2019. Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath. Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis. Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath. Banner image: Shutterstock.